The present invention comprises a new Poinsettia, botanically known as Euphorbia pulcherrima, and hereinafter referred to by the variety name ‘EURZ0012’.
‘EURZ0012’ is a product of a planned breeding program. The new cultivar has dark red bract color, medium-large inflorescences with bracts a little upright directed, dark green foliage, compact-medium vigor with strong vertically oriented branches.
‘EURZ0012’ originates from a hybridization in a controlled breeding program made in September 2012 in a greenhouse in Enkhuizen, The Netherlands. The female parent was an unpatented, proprietary E. pulcherrima parentage, identified as ‘13450’ with dark red bracts with a more upright plant shape and more blue hue on the older bract when compared to ‘EURZ0012’.
The male parent was a plant of E. pulcherrima parentage, identified as ‘NPCW08153’ and described in U.S. Pat. No. 21,107 with smaller bracts and more compact plant shape when compared to ‘EURZ0012’. These plants were multiplied separately and examined during next fall-winter flowering for uniformity and stability of the new combination of characteristics.
The first act of asexual reproduction of ‘EURZ0012’ had been accomplished when shoot tip cuttings were used from the initial selection in late July 2013, rooted and cultivated.
More cuttings were used from the selected plant from July through December 2013 and grafted onto rootstocks of the variety ‘Maren’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,336), in order to improve the branching ability. Shoot tip cuttings from successfully grafted stems were used in the summer of summer of 2014. They were rooted and cultivated as branched plants for a small trial in the fall and winter of 2014. The first asexual propagation was made by taking shoot tip cuttings in Enkhuizen, Netherlands.
Horticultural examinations of plants grown from cuttings of the plant started in the fall to winter of 2014. Examinations continuing thereafter on a larger scale have demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for ‘EURZ0012’ are firmly fixed and are retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction.